Method of mining.



MARTINSCHWERIN, OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.

:METHOD OF MINING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 1 '7, ,1 908.

Application med Ju'iy 11, isos. sei-iai No. 443,135.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARTIN SCHWERIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Elizabeth, in the county of Union 'and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Mining, of which the following is a specification.

,My invention consists in a method of min* ing 'devised by me to minimize the cost of timbering workings, and to reduce the `cost of mucking, that 1s removing broken one to the levels. I

My new method involves stopping by -successive inclined slices and filling-in of? the spaces formed by the slicing operation, as the stoping of each slice progresses. IVhere the ore is weak, it may bevnecessary to 'supi port the roof by posts and head-boards near the advancing face, but such slight timbering is merely incidental to my invention .and is not 'required where the ore is strong;

even where such posts and head-boards are required, they may bewithdrawn if desired. In any case the filling is effected by dumping-in waste 'from the top of the slice when the face has advanced far enough to make room for the filling operation.

My new method will be best understood by reference vto the accompanying diagrams in which F i re l is a vertical projection of a minable tion thereof.

Referring to these diagrams, 1 is a drift in minable material or alongside of a vein, and leads to a shaft or chute not shown.

2 is a waste-chute and 3 is a body of minable material lying between the drift and the waste-chute.

Lisa cross-cut first formed and starting from the' drift. As the material is removed from this cross-cut, it is advanced towards.

slice space (correspondin to the slice of ma-v terial removed) is forme into which waste ymaterial or filling is dumped, the dumping -inal resting place without any handling dy, and Fig. '2- a horizontal projec- `ural slope or angle ofrepose of the filling.

being begun before all the minable material i is removed from the rst slice. The fillingk is dumped into the slice space as soon as practicable behind an advancing face in order to diminish the Width of roof left unsupported.

When the slice spaceformed by removal' of l the first slice has lbeen filled up, the track will be shited and laid from the foot of the waste-chute on top of the filling in the lirstvslice space. The main functions vof the filling are to support the overlying minable materialand to prevent a caving of the ground above. Y

In practice, I begin the second cross-cut 8 before the first cross-cut is completed and then, on reaching the far end of the second cross-cut, begin work on the second inclined raise 9; and so on until the minable body is worked out lbetween the levels of the drift and the tops of the slice-spaces. v

The slices are carried on the angle ofv r`e. pose of the filling sothat the waste finds its other than tramming in mine cars. and dumping. The ore as it .is broken requires no handling to'convey it to ore-gates in the roof of the cross-cut below each slice, on the level below, since it falls by gravity down lthe incline in which the slice is stoped.

The position of each cross-cut is such that Vthe .slice rconnectin p it. and the top crosscut will have an inc ination equal to the nat- When the first bottom cross-cut reaches the opposite wall of the vein (the same side of the vein as that on which the waste-chute is situated in the llevel above) an, inclined raise is started on the angle of repose so that it will hole into the foot portion of the waste-chute. Each raise and slice is removed to a height above the iioor'of this foot por-tion of the waste-chute sulicient to enable the work therein to be carried on.-

The rst slice is taken by stoping from the lirst inclined raise. Then the stope has advanced far enough away from. the raise, the timbers,lif any, behindare drawn and fillin -in the raise is commenced. Each one of the bottom cross-cuts is timbered, the caps l() resting on separate pairs of posts 11, in these cross-cuts which are side by side. Separate posts'must be used so that when the timbers are drawn at the end of a cross-cut -in which filling is going on, the timbers in ently'. The drift along the wall in the bot tom level may also be timbered and kept open for traminiug ore to the chute or shaft, as long as any stoping is going on in the slices ope-ned up fromthis drift. Filling in each slice space will stand right up to the level of the floor of the top cross-cut or foot portion of the waste-chute. rIrack laid on this filling, and moved from slice to slice will serve to convey the waste from the waste-chute down which it comes to the slice space in process of filling. Filling may be stowed for the support of the roof in the -top portion of each slice space as soon as such top spaces are no longer needed to lay track on for trarnmin'g waste, but there will be left open a passage-way along the wall onthe same side as the waste-chute. This passage-way lthus grows into a top drift and furnishes a means for cars of waste passing from the waste-chute to the slice spaces. When .the distance that waste istrammed becomesso great that it is more economical to construct a new waste-chute, then'this top drift is abandoned after the timberaifany,

Y in it are recovered, and it is lled with waste or lleft open for ventilation until the new waste-chute is finished.

In operation it is advisable to start the second bottom cross-cut before the first is finished, and the third cross-cut before the second" is finished, so as to have a number of slices in various stages of partial completion, the underlying ones being more ad-A vanoed than those successively overlying. Likewise it iig/advisable to keep the lower part of a stope i'n advance ofthe upper part so as to facilitate keeping separate the lling and ore. y

A Afeature of opera-tionf in several slices simultaneously is that an underlying slice space 'must be filled in'l that portion of it which directly lunderlies any work inprogress on the slice above. After thev first inclined raise breaks into the foot portion of the waste-chute, there is always an open course for air to circulate between the bottom drift and the waste-chute (or a man-l way alongside of it) by way of some portlon of a slice in course of stoping.

Whether the bottom drift .follows ai wall,

in ore or in waste, or whether it be in reality a cross-cut throughthe ore-body and the course of thecross-cuts be thereby changed.- -sothat they are technically not Vcross-cuts, but drifts, does not in any vcase alter my method since it is here contemplated that under certain conditions the passages may sages be laid ou't in any direction through an ore or other minable body, or certain paseven omitted entirely. Likewise whether the vcross-cuts are parallel and the, raises at their ends at right-angles to them or at some other angle (in the horizontal projection), and whether lthe shape of the slices be rectangular, trapezoidal, rhomboidal, quadrilateral, or irregular, does not change my method since it is here contemplated, under certain conditions, to make the shape of the slices conform to the shape of vthe minable body in any manner demanded by the economic necessities of the physical conditions. Likewise the order of progress of the slices, or the4 progress of the stopes in either direction between the walls or from the inclined raises, or the placing of the inclined raises in the middle or at either end,

or elsewhere, is here contemplated. Likewise it is here contemplated that the angle of inclination of the slices will be varied to suitgconditions imposed by various ores and minerals and varying degrees of strength of the ore or mineral.

I claim 1. rllhe herein-described method of mining minable bodies by removal of successive in clined slices or stopes, and the lilling, after removal, of the slicespaces.

2. The herein-described' consisting in successively slicing a minable body on an incline and filling thespace formed by the slicing operation.

3. The herein-described method of mining 'consisting in connecting a drift and an openended wastefchute by successively slicing on an incline a minable body which isbetween the drift and chute, and-in filling the space formed by lthe slicing operation whereby the minable material above said space'is sup-v ported by the filling. l

4. The herein-described method of mining consisting in cross-cutting a minable body lying between a drift and a waste-chute; in slicing said body on an incline from the crossfcut to the waste-chute, and in filling the space formed by the slicing operation to support the minable material 4overlying said space. A,

vIn testimony whereof I have hereunto set witnesses, this 7th day of July, 1908.

VlVl'ARIIlJ SCI-IVVIRII.

Witnessesz' l G. BLAKE, EDWARD E. BLACK.

ethod of miningv lmy hand in the presenceof two subscribing 

